


On the High Seas

by KattheCat



Category: Exiles Saga and Galactic Milieu - Julian May
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Angst, Crack, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23450194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KattheCat/pseuds/KattheCat
Summary: Once again, the Dark Ship had caught up with Captain Drum and his pirate crew.  Pirate AU





	On the High Seas

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own anything from Julian May’s worlds; Julian May does. No copyright infringement is intended; I am only borrowing these characters.
> 
> So, one response to self-isolating during a pandemic is to... write an Exiles!Pirate AU ficlet? OK then...

There’s quick knocking on Knife-Handed Liz’s door in the early hours of the morning and she woke up with much grumbling.

It was Bones Claude at the door.

“Liz, get down to the boat, quick! Someone spotted the Dark Ship,” he said curtly through the keyhole.

Wide awake now, Liz pushed her curly brown hair out of her eyes and sat up.

“I’ll be down in a second!” she called.

“You’d better!” he said heavily and she heard him start knocking on another door.

As soon as they had arrived here, Bones Claude would have paid someone at the lookout post to alert him at their inn if they saw the enemy on approach.

Luckily, she had all her things already packed in her rucksack and she’d slept in her clothes last night. This wasn’t behaviour becoming of a ship’s surgeon, but a pirates crew always slept on land with one eye open and a knife ready at hand anyway.

And when you were the ship and crew unlucky to be stalked by the Dark Ship, well, you were even more cautious on land. But they had been running low on supplies and had taken the risk to stock up on the Isle of Moriah.

Not waiting to wash her face, Knife-Handed Liz put on her boots, clapped her hat on and then grabbed her rucksack before leaving her room.

She clattered down the stairs with other members of their crew, none of them wasting time in talk. One-Eyed Richard looked half-asleep as he clutched a bottle of expensive looking liquor in one hand. Bryan the Quill looking sad, mainly because he had failed to find yet again the one he loved, Mercy the Pirate Queen.

They hurried the short distance from their inn down to the shore where Mighty Stein was already waiting with the boat to row them back to their ship, the _Jolly Rogered_.

Normally, Liz would have taken some time to appreciate the lovely morning with the vast blue sky, the warm sun on their backs and the scent of perfume in the air from the islands many flowers. But all she felt was the now familiar feeling of dread inside, the wish to get on their ship as fast as they could and flee yet again.

If only Captain Drum hadn’t challenged the dreaded Captain Remillard and his ship, the _Dawn Star_ (known to all instead by its nickname, the Dark Ship), to a race that time with his own ship.

By Aiken Drum’s own mad luck, the _Jolly Rogered_ had actually held its own against the larger, menacing _Dawn Star_. Won, even. But then Aiken had to throw a spanner into his own works by hoisting a flag that had the picture of an impudent, upraised finger upon it as they departed.

Wrathful at the insult, Captain Remillard had pursued their ship ever since. They had often escaped by the skin of their teeth, but had their luck run out this time?

As their boat neared the _Jolly Rogered_ , Liz could see the anxious figure of Sister Amerie, the ships chaplain, at a rail looking down at them. Maybe it was just as well she had stayed on board this time.

A gleam caught Liz’s eye and she tilted her head to see Felice in her usual place up in the crows nest, her long platinum hair having caught the sunlight. She had spent most of her time up in the rigging from her first day on board, coming down only when she had to. The crew member who was stupid enough to ask why she didn’t have a proper pirate name regretted it when she turned her large black eyes to him.

As they boarded the ship with their supplies, Captain Drum appeared at the rail, his bright red hair in dozens of plaits underneath his big black hat.

“Get a move on, you pack of pirates,” he said amiably, but Liz heard a hint of worry in his voice.

The crew all leapt to their different tasks and it wasn’t long until the _Jolly Rogered_ was sailing away towards the horizon, catching a good wind in their sails.

Their luck had held out again.

Or maybe not.

When Liz was starting to allow herself to feel relief at their escape, a shout from Felice up in the crows nest made everyone’s head look up.

She pointed back the way they came.

Liz turned to look back at the Isle of Moriah, and to her horror she saw the island on fire, the unmistakable silhouette of the Dark Ship anchored safely off it.

They might have escaped again but at a heavy cost this time.

* * * * * * * * * * 

On the _Dawn Star_ , Captain Remillard coolly noted the inn and the various shops aflame on the island by his order, which first mate Owen Blanchard had carried out. 

Marc didn’t see the point of his crew having idiotic nicknames as it was inefficient.

He had crisply ordered the evacuation of the inhabitants first; there was no need for their deaths and indeed, it was more useful for them to live and spread the word that any help given to the crew of the _Jolly Rogered_ would be unwise.

Once again, that ship had escaped.

Never mind, he would catch up to them eventually. 

FINIS


End file.
